The City’s economic activity accumulates a drop of 6% in 2024

Due to the decline in services, commerce, industry and construction, Economic activity in the City of Buenos Aires accumulated a drop of 6% in the third quarter of this year, well above the same figure at the national level (-3%).

According to the “Quarterly Indicator of Economic Activity” of the Buenos Aires Institute of Statistics and Censuses released this Friday, in the third quarter “the production of goods and services in the City of Buenos Aires reflected a drop of 4.1% compared to the same quarter of the year. previous year: in this way, the indicator accumulated, until the third quarter, a drop of 6%.”

The difference with respect to the country level is explained because in CABA the activities of public and private services, commerce and construction stand out and there is no agricultural or mining activity, two of the areas that registered a strong expansion this year.

José Donati, head of the Buenos Aires Institute, told Clarin that “the economy of the City of Buenos Aires presents activity indicators with a greater level of fall than those observed at the national level “because the sectors that, with their dynamism, partly support activity at the national level, such as agricultural activity, mining and energy generation, have no impact on the Buenos Aires economy.”

“The activity numbers are explained by the deterioration of income, both labor and non-labor that grow almost 10% less than inflation and due to the increase in unemployment and underemployment, whose rates are above the values ​​observed in 2023,” added Donati.

“What is really worrying is the longer-term viewalthough the data for the fourth quarter that we are currently studying is missing, preliminary estimates can be made that indicate that the City will end 2024 with a product similar to what it had in 2014, really a lost decade due to the zigzags of the macroeconomy,” Donati predicted.

That’s why, Even at the country level, if the agricultural sector is excluded, the accumulated fall through September widens to -5%. The most affected sectors are construction, industry and commerce.

The Buenos Aires Report highlights that “compared to the two previous quarters, during the third quarter there was a slowdown in the fall in the level of economic activity. The indicators of most sectors show negative variations except for Financial Intermediation, Electricity, Gas and Water, Education and Social Services. The sectors that stand out for their negative results are Construction, Commerce and Transportation and Communications.”

In turn, “In this quarter the negative variation is led by the behavior mainly of the goods production sector and that of commerce and services, with an insignificant, although positive, role of the public sector. As far as incidence is concerned, the branches of economic activity that lead the contribution to the final result are construction, wholesale of intermediate use products and radio and television services.”

For its part, The income of Buenos Aires residents had a sharp decline. As of the third quarter of this year, the total average family income was $1,428,034, which represented an increase of 208.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. They are 32.1 points below the increase in the IPCBA (Inflation Index) which was 240.6%.fr according to the Buenos Aires Institute. That drop represents an average revenue decline of 9.4% over 12 months.

Also in the third quarter of 2024, the employment rate decreased compared to the same period of the previous year, while the unemployment rate stood at 6.3% of the economically active population; a year before it was 5.6%.